Meteor
by Tavina
Summary: The brightest of us are the ones who burn up the fastest. Uchiha Izuna is determined not to burn. Izuna POV. Part of the Moonrise/Sunfall/The Scarlet Flower 'verse set during the Waring States era. Thus, Semi-MadaHashi, HashiMito, MadaKanae.
1. An Opening Gambit

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"The flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long."

— Lao Tzu, Dao De Jing

* * *

"I think you should go, Niisan." Izuna sips his tea and feels the tremors from Niisan's footsteps echo over the walls. "It won't be such a bad idea, would it?"

The table is in front of him. There's a chill in the winter air. Outside, the wind howls.

Niisan is still uneasy, shifting from foot to foot. "It would be pointless." He's tired of it all, and he's been getting progressively worse all morning.

Izuna sets his teacup down on the table and rises to his feet. _It would better than sitting here all the time._

 _Senju Hashirama makes you miserable._ Despite everything, Izuna doesn't have much love for his brother's fixated obsession. Sure, Senju Hashirama doesn't try to kill people unnecessarily, and he's kind and popular and generally a good man. One could even say that he's a miracle, since good men are hard to find in places that used to be warzones not three years ago.

Izuna still hates him anyway. "You should take the trip." He doesn't know why Uzumaki Ashina had written to Hashirama about a daughter's marriage, and he knows even less why Hashirama would connect that to Niisan, but it is true that the clan needs a matriarch, and Niisan desperately needs someone.

 _I'm not enough anymore._

His brother's not looking for familial love. His heart wants something else and has been looking in the wrong place for the sheer amount of devotion needed to lighten his nightmares. The Uchiha Clan loves him enough, and Izuna loves him better. It is not enough.

No, Niisan needs someone to challenge the persistent rumors that have sprung up in Konoha in his wake.

He needs someone to distract him from Senju Hashirama, because obsession is fundamentally unhealthy. Izuna doesn't call his brother's obsession with the Senju, love. It's a longing for acceptance that he does not understand, but love, love is different. Love isn't what you feel for people who unknowingly tear you down.

Senju Hashirama has not seen who Uchiha Madara is in a long time. Senju Hashirama lives in the half awake state of believing that Izuna's brother is still the child he met by the Nakano river without taking into account that time has a funny kind of violence that kills children and leaves men in their place. If Senju Hashirama could see who Niisan actually _is_ in the here and now, it would be different, but he can't, so Izuna doesn't find much use for him.

Love is for the people who make you warm, not leave you cold. Love is both given and taken, a circle not a line. _My greatest goal in life has always been to ensure your happiness, Niisan._ And to ensure that happiness, to give happiness even a possibility, Izuna has to search further afield than Konoha. At the present moment, his search is fixated on going to Uzu.

"I will not leave you here by yourself." Niisan sits down heavily on the floor.

Izuna walks over to him and sets a hand on his shoulder. "Then don't leave me here. Take me with you." He might not be as good in a fight anymore, but he's still a good judge of character.

"No." Niisan snaps and shifts. "You're not leaving Konoha."

Izuna shoves the spark of irritation down. _I'm blind, Niisan, not a cripple._ Other people might call him that, Uchiha Madara's poor crippled brother, but he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

It is not like before, like the time he'd first awoken after making the Senju transplant his eyes. The darkness around him had been suffocating then, cloying, choking off every action he'd attempted. He had been paralysed by the possibilities, unable to take risks, unable to accept the idea that sometimes, he'll just have to fall and get over it. Niisan's help had been appreciated then, even though the guilt radiating from him had been deep enough to drown in.

But Izuna's grown and changed. He's more sure footed now; his hearing is sharper; sometimes, he can feel where people are, and he can make tea and cook and walk around, and practice his katas in the courtyard, and play shogi by himself just fine. He can even go out the door for visits in the district, despite not knowing what the district even looks like.

 _I'm twenty-two years old, and you are terrified of me stepping out the front door._

Sure. It bothers him still, the persistent darkness where he could see so well before. It grates on his pride when he stumbles over an uneven patch of road, when he used to be able to run, that he could fling himself through the trees without even thinking before, and now he needs to keep track of where he puts his shoes or he'll have to crawl around on the floor looking for them.

He used to be his brother's right hand, and now he is Niisan's liability.

Of course, it bothers him, but he made his own choices. He didn't do this so that Niisan could guilt himself into heart-sickness. He'd done it because he loves Niisan, because the clan needs a strong leader in this era where enemies are closer than ever, existing together in an uneasy peace. Niisan and his dreams are ideal for being a leader in this new and unusual world. Izuna doesn't trust the other clans enough to be diplomatic and mean it.

Niisan could use his eyes better, so that's where they belong.

Izuna's adapted himself to the darkness.

He's not asking to go with Niisan because he's afraid of being left alone in the house. _I can still take Tobirama if he's going to come around looking for revenge. He'll die too, if I have to die._ He wants to go, because if Uzumaki-san is truly unsuitable for Niisan, he wants to be able to object.

His niisan is often a dunderhead. He might feel obligated to marry someone who doesn't suit him just because he made the journey. If Uzumaki-san is not for Niisan, then she is _not for Niisan_ and Izuna will do something about it _before_ it gets out of hand, which means actually being there instead of a country away _._

He waits patiently for a response, but all Niisan gives him is a heavy sigh.

"I'm not a cripple."

"I know you're not." The reply is too fast, too sudden, laden heavy with guilt.

He resists the urge to sigh. "Then let me go with you. You still trust my judgement don't you? I can tell if the clan will like her."

"No." There's a note of fear in Niisan's voice. "I can't, I don't want-no."

It is ironic that Niisan's the one who fears losing. _You were the one who nearly died for me._ He still has the image of Tobirama's sword protruding from Niisan's stomach burned into his mind.

Even if his sharingan is gone, the images and the muscle memory remains behind. He's not sure if he wants to curse that thought or not. On one hand, he still remembers Niisan's face because of it, on another, he still remember exactly what he thought Niisan's corpse would look like too.

He'd thought Tobirama better than that, better than killing his brother's best friend, but evidently not. He'd respected Senju Tobirama once if only for his strength and for his honor. No longer.

Evidently not, and now the Uchiha are bound to Konoha through his own weakness, though if peace would work, then it really would be better this way.

The way it's going right now, peace is killing Niisan, so Izuna hates peace. Izuna hates everything that conspires to hurt what remains of his family. He's got so precious few pieces of their family left.

"I'm not some breakable thing, Niisan. Don't treat me that way."

Niisan draws a long shuddering breath, and the guilt all around them intensifies. "I try not to."

It is these mornings that Izuna nearly crumples. Nothing he does can soothe the wounds on his brother's heart, and Niisan goes farther away every day without going anywhere worthwhile.

 _I could really learn to hate Senju Hashirama. I really can._

"Then let me go with you." Before, before this wouldn't even be a question. Izuna would ask it, and Madara would say yes without a second thought. Now, now, it takes more. It takes guilt and threats and pleading, and Izuna _burns_ at the unfairness of it all.

"No." So soft his ears almost don't catch it. "I can't lose you too, Izuna."

"I'll track your chakra and follow you if you don't let me go with you." He can't leave Niisan alone, ever. He can't trust Niisan not to do something rash and stupid. There's a fire burning under Niisan's skin that makes him feverish to the touch, burning him down slowly.

Peace is a skin that Niisan doesn't wear well. Izuna doesn't wear it comfortably either, but Niisan's boundless energy's turned inwards now, and there's nowhere for it to go except self reflection and Izuna knows that his brother isn't perfect, that he has a lot to be guilty for, but still, he doesn't like waiting around for Niisan to burn down.

He's almost afraid of what will happen when Niisan eventually does. Will he have to put Niisan in a coffin and make the hand signs for another funeral pyre? He doesn't want to bury another brother, but if he has to he will endure it because the clan still needs a leader even if they rather it not be a blind man.

Izuna knows that should it come to that he will be able to do it, that he'll bury Niisan and marry someone just because this is what duty says he'll have to do. He'll endure the duty, endure anything, because Izuna is Uchiha first, and that is what the Uchiha need... _But I don't want to do that._

 _I don't want to grieve and pain and suffer and endure and go on and on and on and on._ The long slow turn of years, of days like water droplets dripping down and wearing away at his mind will drive him mad.

Izuna knows it.

Izuna doesn't want it.

As of this moment, all these things weigh on Niisan. All of them weigh, and Izuna knows that his life weighs the most.

Giving up his eyes might have saved Niisan's life, but it's torn a crack right through the center of Niisan's broken heart. "I think you know which one is more dangerous, Niisan."

He doesn't like threatening Niisan, but he likes the idea of Niisan going to Uzu and drowning in the ocean even less. At this point, if Niisan gets caught by a whirlpool, Izuna doesn't know if he'd fight the water's pull, would want to keep living.

It frightens him.

Niisan wouldn't mind if he dies. That thought frightens him. Uchiha Madara doesn't find his own life worthy enough to fight for.

It is why he had been weak enough to concede to peace with the Senju. Anything for his brother's life. He didn't concede to his own weak heart so that Niisan might drown himself in a whirlpool, so he has to threaten and plead and guilt his way into this trip.

"Fine." Niisan climbs to his feet, clinging to Izuna's sleeve. "We will go to Uzu together, and then we will come back." His footsteps start fading away.

Izuna stands there for a long moment, and then he feels around the table for his teacup.

It's gone cold. _Figures. Life's just a mess right now._

* * *

"Is it true?" Elder Sayuri asks over tea a day later. "The Whirlpool King wants to offer Madara-kun his younger daughter?"

Izuna can see her in his mind's eye, an old woman with crow's feet around her eyes and hair pinned up in a severe bun. He can feel the bright, inquisitive spark in her eyes. Age hasn't dulled her concern for her clan members.

"Uzumaki-dono has made an offer, though not an overt one." Izuna hedges. He does not mention that Niisan has no desire to accept, and indeed, no desire to go and that it's really Senju Hashirama's meddling that's caused this whole chain of events. If he can sway the Elders to his side, then Niisan will have to at least go, and if Niisan goes this situation has a possibility to turn out for the better.

"That is extraordinarily strange." Elder Asahi rumbles from his corner. He blows a cloud of smoke from his pipe as he does so. Izuna smells the half sweet tang of it. "He only has two daughters, and the elder one is married to the Senju."

"The Uzumaki haven't married to the mainland in a lifetime." Elder Yuko murmurs. Her voice hitches. "Why would they allow two of their princesses to marry out now?" She pats his hand. "Izu-kun, do you know?"

Izuna has a few ideas, but none of them are concrete. _Mito-san married Senju Hashirama for love._

 _Uzumaki Kanae is clearly not marrying for love. What is she marrying for? It can't be her father's ailing health at all. That's a reason to stay close, not go a country away._

"I don't have any ideas." Izuna says at last. "But I don't think they're doing it to hurt Niisan or the Uchiha, Yuko-baasan." Uzu has been an isolated kingdom for as long as he's been aware of the world.

In twenty-two years of life, Senju Mito was the first and only person from Uzu he has ever met. Now though, now he'll be visiting the city. _They call it the eternal city, the city unmarked by time._ It reads like a fairytale, a children's story, and Izuna is fascinated. He won't be able to see it, but he'll still be able to feel it.

They say that Uzu is what real peace looks like. Maybe there, Izuna will be able to learn what to expect of his brother's experiment.

"Konoha has yet to gain a clear and decisive leader." Elder Asahi shifts in his seat, the wooden chair creaking just a bit. "Perhaps they want to hedge their bets. No matter if it is Madara-kun who wins, or the Senju they'll have a woman in a place of power to direct the course of events in the Land of Fire."

"Uzumaki Ashina doesn't care about the Land of Fire." Elder Sayuri counters. "Asahi-kun, the last time he even stepped foot on the mainland was over thirty years ago, and his father died here. He didn't want anything to do with this place then."

"That doesn't mean he didn't grow ambitious in the meantime." Elder Yuko rises and closes the window. There's a wooden creak as the hinges protest, and then the sun on Izuna's face is gone. The discussion is getting more serious then.

"I don't think that's it either." Izuna picks up his teacup and brings it to his mouth. The steam stings his face a little, but it doesn't hurt that bad. There are many more things that hurt, and he can take little pain for hot tea. "If they are really so isolationist, it is because Ashina-dono who is their king, is an isolationist at heart." At least, he thinks so, because surely a nation can't be much different than a clan.

The clan is lost because Niisan is lost.

Uzu is an isolated land, because Uzumaki Ashina does not like to meddle in other people's business despite having the power to do so. It is simple logic.

Still, his offer of marriage for Uzumaki Kanae-san is very strange.

"At any rate," Elder Sayuri decides. "It cannot hurt to urge Madara-kun to go and see. The Uzumaki are rumored to have strong chakra reserves, and if they are offering, then they will hold to their own code of honor." _The clan would not be amiss to add a few more children with above average reserves. It is one of our weaknesses. We don't have many larger than average reserves among us, just very good control._ "They don't harm guests in Uzu."

And yes, that is also a consideration. Quite frankly, Izuna wouldn't mind several nephews or nieces. He likes children. He just, just doesn't think that he'll ever have any now that he's, at least on the outside, mostly crippled.

There won't be a clan who would want one of their daughters to marry him, and Niisan would be incensed until forever if he married a civilian, and he really doesn't feel like marrying a cousin.

He's not sure he wants to marry a civilian anyway. Civilians are too different. They wouldn't understand him, and he doesn't understand them.

So Izuna himself is fresh out of options. _No children for me._

 _I can live with that._

"It's not as if our Madara-kun has that many other marriage prospects unless he wants to court a Senju." Elder Asahi sighs another cloud of smoke in the general direction of the door.

 _Oh, if only you knew._ Izuna thinks quite sarcastically to himself. _How badly Niisan would like to court a particular Senju. The sweetness of that poison would turn your stomach._

 _Senju Hashirama, my brother's too good for you._

"He hasn't fallen in love with any of the women he's met in the red light district, has he?" Elder Yuko pours him more tea. "We haven't ever heard him mention anyone, but with how little we go out these days, we can't be too sure...you would certainly know."

The very idea is enough to make him choke on his tea. "W-what?" He gasps. _Niisan fall in love with a woman from the red light district? Do you have eyes in your head? I don't have eyes in my head and even I know it will take someone extraordinary to pry Niisan's attention away from Senju Hashirama._

Elder Asahi pounds his back and Elder Sayuri offers him a handkerchief. "Come, Yuko, don't surprise the poor boy so." She smooths his bangs away from his face. "But now, Izu-kun, we are very curious. An Uchiha doesn't just evade love until he is twenty-four. Has our Madara-kun fallen in love?"

"Ah, no." He finally manages. He means the relationship between Niisan and his various women. He avoids the thought of Senju Hashirama. What the Elders do not know...may very well hurt them, but he's not going to throw Niisan to the wolves.

He sets the teacup down. With his luck, they'll ask him yet another unanswerable question about the nature of things, and he'll drop the poor teacup on the floor. That would be hardly fair to the teacup. It's just doing its job. "He doesn't care about any of them. He hasn't visited in months."

 _Sorry, Niisan._ Izuna wails privately. _It's very hard not to be a gossip when all they want is your wellbeing._

 _That, and when my life's at stake. I don't put it past them to eat me alive if they don't hear some sort of news._

 _At least I didn't spill all of your secrets._

"Well, that's good at least." Elder Asahi sighs. "Let's just hope that finding him a wife he doesn't love right away won't get driven into a scandalously drawn out affair for all of us."

It sounds like they've already made a decision for Niisan already. Niisan is going to go to Uzu, and he is going to get married whether he likes it or not.

Izuna would prefer that he likes it, but the options are few, and things must go on, so. Well, Izuna will do his level best.

"I'll be going with Niisan to Uzu." Izuna offers. "And I'll be able to dissuade him if Uzumaki-san isn't a suitable candidate."

There's a quiet murmur of assent around the table. None of them bother to forbid him from going to Uzu with Niisan. They know that he's dangerous.

They know he can take care of himself.

They don't treat him any differently than before.

He likes that really, sitting here with the Elders, drinking tea like the days before everything is dark.

"Izu-kun." Elder Asahi says suddenly. "Take care of yourself more. You worry too much for Madara-kun. He'll be alright."

Will he though? Will Niisan be alright?

Niisan hurts so much all the time. He buries himself in self reflection, and at night his dreams make him toss and turn and strangle sobs into his pillow until all his sheets are soaked with sweat. He doesn't know what Niisan dreams of, only that it is something close to death and loss and bitterness.

Izuna doesn't even know if it's a memory or just a horror conjured by the depths of his brother's mind that robs the sleep from his soul.

He wants very badly for Niisan to be alright, but he doesn't trust the truth of it. "Of course, I'll take care of myself. I'm Uchiha Izuna, when have I been bad at taking care of myself?"

"Your entire life perhaps. You've always been a selfless dutiful boy, and you've grown into a selfless dutiful man." Elder Asahi makes the quip, and the other elders join in the laughter.

It's warm sitting here, even without the sun.

* * *

The trip to Uzu is fraught with complications. For one, Niisan is unduly...agitated the entire way. Izuna didn't know that Niisan could get so nervous to meet a woman, or that a woman's scorn or judgement meant much at all to Niisan, but apparently, Uzumaki Kanae is a woman who can make even Niisan...nervous.

It might be the titles.

For another, an agitated Niisan means a overly controlling Niisan, and Izuna is getting tired of being pulled about by the hand. He can walk perfectly well.

He can even step over tree roots. He is fine.

"Niisan." He pulls his hand away. "Niisan. I can walk by myself."

It'll be enough for the next few minutes. Niisan will forget again, as is his nature, and Izuna will have to remind him, as is _his_ own nature.

"If she is a princess like any of the Daimyo's daughters, we're leaving." Niisan says rather suddenly after a brief moment.

Privately, Izuna would like to agree with him. If she is a pampered whiny child then they will be gone posthaste. Outwardly, he can show no such signs. "Niisan, she will not be." How could she be, when she is the daughter of a warrior nation? Uzu is built on centuries' worth of raiding the coastline.

The clan elders still tell bloodchilling stories of when Uzu last marched in Fire Country. The Drowning March, over thirty years ago is still the stuff of nightmares for those old enough to remember. The Aguda Clan had taken Uzu's king, and now there is no Aguda Clan to be known in Fire Country, or indeed, anywhere else. Uzumaki Ashina had seen to the drowning of every last man, woman, and child in their beds. Uzu's armies had sown blood and salt in the fields left in their wake.

Even now that patch of shore is an uninhabitable wasteland.

And then Uzu's armies had left the mainland, never to return. Until now.

Uzumaki Ashina is a man who dislikes waging war, so surely he is different from a weak-willed daimyo, which must mean that his daughter is different as well.

His brother falls silent, but Izuna feels the energy in the air pull taut like a bowstring.

By the time they leave the forest and arrive at the shore, Izuna is absurdly grateful for the relief. The air is sharp and cold for a morning in early spring, and they are both wearing padded armor. He's grateful for the extra warmth that the padding provides even if he is decidedly not grateful about the weight of full armor when they come in peace.

The sea is cold, and the winds are harsh. No, Uzumaki Kanae will be nothing like the pampered daughter of a Daimyo. The crash of the waves, the cries of the gulls, the cold wind blowing off of the water, it speaks of a bleak land.

No one survives in a harsh environment without losing what makes them spoiled. She might be prideful, might be cruel, but she will not be pampered.

Far away in the distance, he hears the boom of thunder rolling across the sky. In his mind's eye, he can picture the overcast sky, the occasional flash of lightning. They are not at the water's edge, but a ways away standing in what feels to be sand.

But now that they are here, Niisan is more indecisive than ever.

"Niisan, we're close aren't we?" He prompts his brother kindly, because perhaps all it is is that Niisan has forgotten.

Niisan shifts on his feet. "Yes." Still, he doesn't take the step forward.

Izuna takes a deep breath and breathes out. "Then we should go across?"

"No."

 _Oh, I did not arrange this trip for you to turn around and go home._ "Then why did we travel all this way? If you aren't going to meet your bride, what's the point?"

Niisan is silent for a very long time, as if he's fallen into his own thoughts.

A chakra signature breaks from the waves. He's not a good sensor, not like Tobirama is, but still, it is hard to miss the rather large pull that has just appeared from the water.

It feels like a hot spring. Izuna decides. A very warm and deep spring, so deep that he's not quite sure where the bottom is. _Whoever that is, they have chakra to spare._

Niisan absently guides him down to the beach. _So he's chosen to go to Uzu after all, that's good._ "Do you know how we might find passage to Uzu?" So whoever they are, they don't look like a fighter.

A civilian doesn't have this much chakra, this hard sort of pull. _A whirlpool._ He realizes suddenly. _This isn't a hot spring; it's a whirlpool._

"Perhaps." The voice that replies is clear and sweet. _A woman. She can't be a civilian, can she?_ "And who are you two?" If civilians in Uzu had chakra reserves this large, what did that mean about the warriors? What did it say about the younger daughter of a king?

Yet, Niisan doesn't speak to her like she's a shinobi. "Not your business." _If you want the princess to like you, you can't be rude to her like you are with this woman._ Inwardly, Izuna pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.

For someone so nervous to make a good first impression, Niisan is certainly starting it off on the wrong foot by insulting the person who was most likely sent to get them.

No one's seen the inside of Uzu in a great many years. Well, no Uchiha, Senju Hashirama had gotten married in Uzu.

"If you insist." The woman moves away, though the pull of her chakra is still a song like a siren, humming some sort of ditty under her breath. "The fairest seaweed in all the land, the biggest pearl to wear in your hair, would that I love you strong as the riptide..."

"Niisan." Inzuna says at last, after another ten minutes of dead silence from his brother. She just wants to know if they are guests, it isn't such a hard question to answer. If they aren't guests of course she isn't going to let them in. "Stop being like this." He turns towards the direction of her humming. "Miss? I'll tell you who we are."

"Oh. So you must be the reasonable one." She giggles, and it echoes sweetly over the rocks. "I know who you are, Uchiha-san."

"Then you must be?" Izuna comes to crouch beside her, at the edge of the waves.

She is doing something with the water, no, not the water, sand and...wood, a boat maybe? "You can call me Shiko." His brow furrows for a moment. "It's short for Arashiko."

"Little Storm." His brother says. An odd name to give a child.

"Yes. It is what Chichi calls me."

"We're here to see Uzumaki Ashina-dono." Izuna says cheerfully, his voice deceptively light. He rather suspects that this young woman who has come to meet them here on the border between Uzu and Fire Country is more than she first appears. "Do you know him?"

"I can't really say." The boat hits the water with a plop. "Can anyone be said to really know anyone else?"

That is purposefully evasive. _She does know Uzumaki-dono then._

"I assumed you were from Uzu, Arashiko-san." Niisan interrupts before he can ask her who she really is. A civilian woman wouldn't be evasive about knowing the King. Her identity is very curious. "Can you take us to Uzu?"

"Get in the boat, Uchiha-san." It would be an imperious demand, except that she sounds more amused than anything.

 _Someone who's used to other people doing as they say._

Izuna's beginning to suspect something very uncomfortable. He hopes quietly to himself that it's not true, that this isn't the princess Niisan is supposed to be meeting, because right now, all Niisan has done is set fire to his own hair.

Niisan does help him get into the boat though, which is appreciated.

Izuna doesn't like boats.

"Uchiha-san?" He feels her hand over the cloth band he's tied about his face. "Are you?"

"Blind, yes." Izuna smiles politely. He might be used to the darkness, but that doesn't mean he likes it when other people mention it.

He supposes that he will have to get used to that too, being considered a cripple when he's still a perfectly functional human being.

"How," Niisan interrupts the silence for a moment. "Are you planning on getting across the sea?"

She laughs, and it sounds like the ocean. Her swirling chakra is tinged with great amusement and a variety of giggles. "How do you think I got here, Uchiha-san?"

There is a splash as something hits the water, and then the boat shudders forward.

They are on the water now.

 _She is...swimming against the current. How much strength does it take to do that?_ The water pushes them back, but the boat moves forward steadily without regard for the tug of the water.

Something else settles into his stomach. It is very likely that Niisan has ruined everything and Uzumaki Kanae-san is only being polite about this whole endeavor.

Izuna would bang his head against the side of the boat, but that might lead to him falling out of the boat altogether which would be embarrassing and not in his best interest. _Niisan can you try any harder to make your life worse?_

 _It's succeeding._

* * *

The boat bumps up against something hard, and Izuna is offered a small hand so that he might find the other beach. _Rocks._

 _It's rockier here than it was on the shore of Fire Country._

Her hand is calloused and slightly damp. _A warrior despite how much she might not look it at the moment._

"Come along, Uchiha-san." She says. "We shall go and see my Chichi, yes?"

"You are Uzumaki Kanae." Niisan says flatly.

Oh, well, all of this could have gone a lot better.

"Yes." She says without a hint of fear or anger or secrecy. "And you are Uchiha Madara."

"But you said that you were Arashiko." Izuna is so very frustrated to be right. Niisan will most likely want to turn around and leave now. "And now you acknowledge that you are Uzumaki Kanae?" Could it not have waited until later? Couldn't this introduction have happened when Niisan doesn't have the option of turning around?

He's not upset with Kanae-san. In fact, he rather likes Kanae-san, likes the clear feel of her chakra and her unobtrusive consideration for others, but this whole situation is very frustrating.

 _I did not arrange this trip and prod you along all this way for you to put your foot in your mouth and set your hair on fire with such rudeness as to be almost unfathomable, Niisan._

Except of course, he had. That makes him want to hide his face in his hands and weep for the next year. _I shall have to kiss my dreams of a happy Niisan goodbye. How can I ever do that?_

Yet, Niisan doesn't leave, and Kanae-san doesn't seem to notice the dip in his mood.

"Chichi calls me Arashiko." She says and leads him along. "I did not lie to you, Uchiha-san."

Her hand on his elbow steers him about gently. It is slightly less irritating than it could have been. "My apologies, Uchiha-san." She says with little fanfare. "It has been a snowy winter. The streets are not yet packed well."

Niisan is silent, so it falls to Izuna to make some form of conversation. He utters some inane platitude, and focuses on not bumping into someone else in the busy street.

The hustle and bustle of the city feels more like a clan border outpost. People sound so friendly here.

"And here we are." She sounds like she's introducing something grand.

It is where the King of Uzu lives, so it might indeed be rather grand.

"Kanae!" Another voice cuts through his musings. "I told you that today was the big day! How could you go running off-"

"Obaasan." She sighs as Niisan is still completely silent. "They are here already. And they would have left if I didn't head out to greet them this morning."

So her obaasan is still alive. Uzu is a place of peace. Izuna reminds himself of it. If there are no enemies about to kill you, it is likely and very probably to live well into ones twilight years. Half a century of life is not unusual.

"You're Uchiha Madara, then?" The elderly woman asks. Izuna isn't sure if she's looking at him or Niisan. He hopes it's not him. He's well aware that the black band over his eyes makes him decidedly not marriage material. "Hmmph." The verdict doesn't seem particularly pleased, but it also doesn't seem completely displeased. It's a relief. She's looking at Niisan then. "Well, what are you waiting for? Ashina-kun is waiting to see them."

"Of course, Obaasan. I shall bring them to Chichi directly."

"How old is your grandmother?" Niisan seems to have found his voice again, even if it is for silly questions like the age of Kanae-san's grandmother.

"She is seventy seven this year." She chirps and leads them on.

"Seventy-seven?" Izuna asks, unable to hide the tremor of surprise. "That is a great age indeed." _Seventy-seven._ That is more than three times his lifespan. He'd have to live his life three times over only to get to sixty-six.

Three and a half lives is a great age for a shinobi to have lived.

She muffles a giggle. "Tanaka-san is the oldest person on the Island, and he is a hundred and thirty-eight this year. Obaa-san's young compared to him." Izuna's mind stalls for a moment. "And how old are you?" She asks.

It's on the tip of his tongue to reply, but Niisan beats him to it, which is good. "Twenty-four."

"Do you not fear being...attacked?" Surely an elder of such advanced age would have to worry about enemies.

"By Tanaka-san?" Kanae-san laughs."He might be an old grump, but he's not in the habit of attacking his clan head's children." She's misunderstood him then. It must mean that they don't _have_ enemies that her mind goes to immediately. She lets go of his elbow to slide down the hall in what sounds like her bare feet. "Chichi!" She calls, freely, laughingly, as if there's no respect she must offer, to her clan head, and to her father. _A beloved child then, or her father is a lenient man, which I can't believe is true._ "The Uchiha are here."

Uzumaki Ashina-dono's chakra feels like a massive well, like the slow slide of water over stone.

"Uchiha-dono." He murmurs. "And your brother, do sit." Ashina-dono has a hoarse voice, like stone worn down by the waves, but in no way does it sound like he is failing health at all.

Izuna supposes that this is the first clue that the letter they'd received did not tell the whole truth about the situation. Uzumaki Ashina, it would seem, _lied_ to his son-in-law.

"Uzumaki-dono." Niisan offers.

It's polite enough. Izuna will let it be.

"Arashiko." So that is what Ashina-dono calls her on a daily basis. _Little Storm. She must be more precious to her father than even I first assumed._ "Where are you going?"

"Pearl diving, Chichi." She sounds resigned. And that is the second clue."It might be the last time I ever enjoy the activity. After all, there are no oceans in Fire Country."

 _Kanae-san believes that she will inevitably end up in Fire Country._

 _Why?_

"My apologies, Uchiha-dono." Uzumaki-dono sighs. "She is young still."

"Yes." Niisan sounds like he's considering something, and that that something has incensed him. "She is _young._ "

Izuna thinks about how Kanae-san had sounded, how she had acted.

She doesn't seem young enough for Niisan to make such a big deal about it. Izuna would place her at somewhere between eighteen and his own age.

It's not as if she's a child.

"If she were any older, she would not be willing to leave with you." Ashina-dono, too, speaks as though they are going to accept the offer. "And I assume you have no desire to live among us." It is very strange.

But then, they are here to speak to him about a daughter's marriage, so they ought to be polite about it. _There's no reason to spark arguments with the in-laws before anything has even occured._

Of course, because Izuna has thought this, Niisan opens his mouth and puts his foot in it before setting his hair on fire yet again. "I have no intention to accept."

Izuna's desire to bang his head on the table is even worse now. _Why? Why? Why, must you make this so difficult for yourself?_

 _Kanae-san is a nice enough girl._

Luckily, Ashina-dono doesn't seem to have taken this as a personal slight. "Then why, if you have no intention to court Kanae, are you sitting before me?"

Niisan doesn't say anything.

"Forgive my brother." Izuna raises a hand and gently feels around the table for the teacup. He's sure his tea is around here somewhere, and if he can get to it, it will make his whole day just a little bit better. "Of course, he doesn't mean that." He jabs Niisan in the thigh with an elbow.

 _Say something, Kami. Please. Just say something that can't be interpreted as an insult, Niisan. Please._

"Of course." Ashina-dono sounds like he's smiling. "Uchiha-dono is merely concerned about marrying someone who he has not met before this morning."

 _He is giving me face. Why?_ Why does Ashina-dono want this marriage contract to go through so badly?

Izuna doesn't know, but it does leave him with a sense of unease. _It can't be anything about Kanae-san, can it?_

 _No._ He decides a moment later. Uzumaki Kanae-hime is very unlikely to be defective in any way. Her father loves her dearly. She had been perfectly kind and gracious, and Niisan hadn't reacted like she had half her face burnt off.

 _Besides._ Izuna thinks. _Even if she doesn't look very pretty, that's not to say that she's not a worthwhile person._

So why? Why does Ashina-dono want his beloved younger daughter married a country away from him?

Niisan is still silent.

 _Well._ Izuna laments. _This is useful. I could accomplish this better if I came by myself._

 _Isn't that sad?_ It is very sad.

It is so sad that even Izuna doesn't want to think about it too closely, and Izuna knows that he overthinks everything constantly.

"Uzumaki-dono?" Izuna asks. "Why do you want your daughter married?"

Ashina-dono coughs. It sounds rehearsed and faked. His lungs and airways do not sound blocked by any means. "I am not a young man, Uchiha-san. Surely I would like to see all of my children happy before I go anywhere."

"Your mother is still alive." Izuna counters gently. "And your age cannot be so great as all that. Besides, none of your sons are married, nor do you seem to care about this." _This is a mess of bullshit. What does he want?_

It couldn't be the politics of Konoha could it? The Whirlpool King wouldn't be so heartless as to sell his own daughter for political finangling would he? Izuna comes from a family that never would have stomached such a thing, not truly.

Chichi-ue had never thought to do such a thing.

The Uchiha value love. _What does that make me, now that I am angling to marry Niisan off without his whole-hearted approval?_

He is doing this because it is a last desperate attempt to save his brother's life, but does that make it right? _It doesn't._

 _I'll burn in hell for this._ He has chosen his brother's life partner when it ought to have been Niisan's choice and Niisan's choice alone.

Ashina-dono sighs. Cloth rustles on the other side of the table.

Silk. A silk scroll. Maybe two.

"The contract is here, if you would like to see it."

The people of Uzu write on silk and not paper. It seems like an unnecessarily opulent gesture to make for two visitors who are used to living in tents.

Niisan sucks in a sharp breath. "You want to establish a trade connection through marriage?"

"Before you accuse me of selling my daughter," Ashina-dono replies, his tone measured and firm. "Let me tell you a story."

A daughter for a trade connection into Konoha. _Why does such a wealthy man need something like this?_ There's something that he isn't getting. Everything about Uzu seems nestled in opulence.

The streets had been busy.

People had been cheerfully working together.

Age doesn't hinder the elderly from their daily lives.

Kanae-san had gone _pearl diving._ They wrote their contracts on _silk._

He is missing puzzle pieces to the full picture. Why lure someone here under the guise of illness when it is trade that is to be discussed?

"Tell your story." Niisan drawls, half boredom, half slow burning anger simmering beneath the surface. Clearly, this grates on Niisan's morals.

Izuna places a hand on his arm. _Don't, Niisan. You don't know why yet._

Izuna doesn't feel good about this either, but Niisan is prone to visceral emotional reactions. That is not what they need right now.

"I personally buried fifty-seven citizens of my kingdom this past winter." The statement hits like a gut punch. Fifty-seven.

There are only a hundred and fifty or so people in the entire Uchiha Clan. What must fifty-seven…

"There were more that died on other islands that I could not oversee."

More.

More than fifty-seven.

The very thought is horrifying.

"A trade agreement doesn't ward off enemies from without, Uzumaki-dono." Niisan shifts in his seat.

"There were no enemies that we fought this winter, Uchiha-dono." Ashina-dono's slow tread makes its way across the room. "None except hunger."

"That's impossible." Niisan snaps. "This place is filled with riches. You handed me a marriage contract written on silk and expect me to believe that your people are starving?"

He might sound confrontational to a stranger, but Izuna knows that he is caving. He doesn't sound half so certain as he did before about this whole affair.

"You can't eat silk." Ashina-dono sighs. "And without a trade partner, you can't turn silk into food."

Izuna considers what he knows of the situation. _Why this? Why now?_ He's inclined to believe Ashina-dono's reasons for the contract.

Uzu doesn't meddle with affairs in the Land of Fire. No meddling means no trade either. This last winter has been harsh.

"The lack of raiding has increased the food shortages Uzu experiences in the winter, and any added unforeseen circumstances lead to starvation." He didn't entirely mean to say this out loud but…

Well, it wouldn't be bad for Niisan to hear it. At least now Niisan might be persuaded to actually talk to Kanae-san to see if they got along.

He feels Ashina-dono's gaze linger on him for some time before it moves on.

Izuna doesn't think he'd mind if Niisan marries Kanae-san.

He'll reserve his judgement for now.

* * *

 **A.N.** Izuna's POV for the Sunfall/Moonrise/Scarlet Flower 'verse. I'm sure this will be updated far less frequently than everything else that I have as works in progress seeing as I write everything beyond Sunfall/Moonrise primarily as character studies to flesh out the background and world build some more.

Still, seeing as I wrote it, and I'm rather fond of some parts of it, I figured it wouldn't hurt for everyone to be able to read it as well.

~Tavina


	2. Putting Out Fires

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

"We are only as blind as we want to be."

— Maya Angelou

* * *

"Well," Uzumaki-dono says. "I will let you rest before the festivities tonight." There's the sound of silk sliding against itself. Perhaps Uzumaki-dono adjusted his sleeves? "I suggest you speak to Kanae before she leaves with you."

That would be a good idea. Knowing one's spouse is an important thing.

Niisan is silent. Heavily so. Izuna doesn't like it much, but there's nothing he can do, not truly.

He leaves it be, even as Uzumaki-dono's footsteps fade away.

He leaves it be, even as they walk to their own rooms.

He leaves it be for a while after that even.

No one would ever say that Uchiha Izuna's worst flaw is impatience after all.

Still, the silence presses too heavily after a while, and he has to break it.

"Niisan?" No response, so he continues. "Have you come to a decision yet?"

"No." Niisan slides the door open, and then, then he has the grand audacity to leave. "Wait here for me."

 _Well._ Izuna thinks to himself. _That went well._

There is still hope though, however faint, that Niisan will then proceed to go and talk to Kanae-san. Maybe there is even some hope that this conversation with be a polite one full of romance and — _Oh who are you kidding, Izuna?_

 _Niisan will set his own hair on fire again, and Kanae-san will thank her lucky stars when we leave._

 _Well maybe not that, but Niisan certainly will set his hair on fire._

He sits down on what he assumes is the bed. There's cloth covering it, and it feels about the right size for a bed, so that's probably what it is.

 _The weave is so fine for this._

The door slides open again. "Back again so soon?" He asks before he realizes that this is not, in fact, Niisan.

The chakra's too placid for that.

"I'm sorry." He says, because Uchiha Harumi raised at least one polite young man. Two, if Niisan can get his act together. "I thought you were Niisan. I'm angry with him right now."

He's greeted by a quiet chuckle. "Understandable."

"Really?" He still hasn't the faintest clue who he's speaking to. That's enough to make him wary. He doesn't know this person.

The person sits down on the floor and crosses his legs when he does so, evidenced by the soft drag of cloth on the wooden floorboards. "Well, I have four brothers, so perhaps it is that." A soft huff of breath. "They can be unfortunate sometimes."

Four brothers. If it was a perfect world, Izuna would also have four brothers.

"Are they all younger than you?" He doesn't know really what prompts him to ask this. He still doesn't even know the other person's name.

"I'm the second son. Three younger brothers and one elder brother." The young man across from him replies cheerfully.

 _Like me._ Izuna thinks suddenly. _In a better world, that would be me._ He is Uchiha Tajima's second son.

"Oh!" There's a woosh of air — _He's offering me a hand._ "I've forgotten to introduce myself. Where are my manners? I'm Korui." He doesn't know who Korui is, but at least he has a name now.

He very carefully locates the hand — it has slight calluses on the first and second fingers, but the palm is soft — and shakes it. _Not a shinobi._ Whoever Korui is, he doesn't have kunai scars on his hands, which can only mean that he isn't a shinobi. "I'm Izuna."

"I'm actually here to check and make sure that your rooms are a good fit." Korui is perfectly still, and only the sound of his voice actually gives any indication of where he is. "Is everything alright?"

"Now that you mention it, it is a little cold." There's a persistent cold in this landscape, despite Kanae-san's remark that it is spring already in Uzu, that wraps its way around his bones. It must be a bleak land, despite how easily the people here ignore it.

Korui's hand had been perfectly warm.

"Oh, of course." A bit of scrambling, boots shuffle over the floor. "Just this part of the—" Korui breaks off. "It is our fault." He sounds a bit embarrassed. "We forgot that you wouldn't be able to see the sealing array for these sorts of things, which is really wrong of us, you know?"

Izuna's about to open his mouth and tell the young man that it's really not serious. He's not even that cold, when Niisan bursts back into the room.

"Izuna!" He barks. "Step away."

 _Why do you always set your hair on fire, Niisan?_

"Oh, you must be our other guest." Korui replies, smooth and unbothered. "I was explaining the sealing array to your brother."

"Step away." Niisan growls as he pulls insistently at Izuna's elbow.

"Niisan!" Izuna hisses at him. "Uzumaki-san was being very nice about everything." He assumes that Korui is an Uzumaki, assumes it, because who else would be checking in on guests?

"That could be a lie." Niisan mutters, clearly loud enough for Korui to hear and oh god will he ever stop _doing this_?

Izuna wants to say that he's sorry, but—

"No need to be so unfriendly, Uchiha-dono." Korui seems to only become more cheerful the worse Niisan gets. It's a front. No one is happy to stand and listen to someone insult their hospitality. "You're marrying my sister, after all." Marrying— this is Kanae-san's second brother. "The name's Uzumaki Korui."

That means that he's a prince of Uzu, and Izuna's first words to him was—

Oh he could dig a hole and bury himself right there.

"You are related to Uzumaki-dono." Niisan sounds flat.

 _Oh, wow, Niisan._ Izuna thinks. _Can you repeat that one more time?_ He loves Niisan he really does, but sometimes…

People are not Niisan's strong suit. Bringing Niisan to social situations in general is ill advised.

"Ahaha." Korui-san sounds perturbedly awkward. "I'm his second eldest son, and heir. That's why I'm here to explain..."

"Your eldest brother is...dead, then?" Something about the way Korui-san said this was so _casual. I'm his second eldest son and heir._ One doesn't just set aside an eldest son for no reason, but Korui-san had also had a perfectly normal conversation with him about how his brothers were difficult.

"No." That's a relief, but still perplexing… "Kyoya-niisama is very much alive. It's just...you know, he's Anharaya-atawa no Kyoya, not Uzumaki Kyoya."

 _So Uzumaki-dono's eldest son is a bastard prince._ Bastards are almost unheard of among the Uchiha.

There are rarely children born of wedlock to a clan that married often for love and rarely entered matrimonial arrangements with those not at least partially of Uchiha descent.

Niisan's particular red light district habits aren't typical.

He's had to reassure plenty of relatives that this is just a phase, that this is only Niisan's grief, that his heart loves as dearly and deeply as everyone who shares their name. It has not always been an easy battle.

But if Korui-san speaks of it so casually, then it must not register to him, which either means that it is normal, commonplace here, or that he loves his brother too much to care.

 _What sort of place must this be?_

Uzumaki-dono had not seemed like a man to ignore the thoughts and feelings of his family. He clearly dotes on his daughters, but…

Ah, there is no need to think of this now.

"What were you explaining?" Niisan is still attempting polite conversation then. That is good.

"You see, the air can get very cold at night still." Korui-san kneels down again, and his booted feet creak with sound of old leather. "So this part is the one that allows you to heat the rooms at night, since we don't have a fireplace. All you need to do is add a bit of chakra for it to work, since that's already written into the matrix, and this is where you would place your basin, if you want to heat the water, and this one, this is if you'd like to contact anyone..." He trails off. Izuna will just trust that Niisan knows all about it. He still has no idea where this seal is on the floor. "I suppose there's no one on the island you really want to talk to, and that's a fair bit more complicated." Korui-san laughs to cover the tension in the air. "If you want anyone, just stick your head out the door and shout, no need to be formal."

They are so unlike a daimyo's family.

Any prince that Izuna has ever been bodyguard to in Fire Country has always been reserved at least, if not haughty and arrogant at least to shinobi guards. He'd managed to put up with them because they would pay him money.

Korui-san had acted like a normal young man. Izuna had had a rather fun conversation with him until Niisan's overprotective tendencies scared all the fun away.

Korui-san straightens with another desperate creak of his boots. "I'll be off then."

"You didn't say what the top part does." Oh. Niisan wants to know what the top of the seal does.

Izuna doesn't care the slightest. _It's not going to be something that explodes in the middle of the night, and we're going to have a short trip the way you're carrying on…_

"Oh, you don't want that at all. It's nothing for you to worry about, you'll be gone in a couple of weeks anyway." _A few weeks? You still think we have enough of your sympathy to stay a few weeks?_ "Just don't touch that, you know."

And then Korui-san is gone and it is just Niisan and himself.

He can feel the fatigue rolling off Niisan in waves. He must have spoken to someone, and likely it was Kanae-san.

Oh, he hopes this conversation went well. "Niisan? How did your talk with Kanae-san go?"

Niisan sighs and drops something perfectly smooth into the palm of his hand. "I received a gift."

 _This is… a pearl?_ It is smooth like one, and soft like one, shaped roughly like a tear. Oh, well, if that's the case, then all the better.

He brought a present that Niisan can give Kanae-san, and that would make things quiet even between them. Not to mention, gifts are supposed to be romantic.

"You should give her something." He tries to keep this light. _See, Niisan, I even brought a gift for you to give her._ "You might not like this very much, but we do need a Lady Uchiha."

Niisan sighs again, mightily. "Have you seen her?"

 _Seen—_ His hand rises despite itself. "No, Niisan." He deadpans. "I have not seen Kanae-san." If there is a problem with Kanae-san, then he ought to just say so instead of commenting.

Besides, it is not as if a wife with half her face burnt off is truly so terrible.

Izuna doubts that Kanae-san doesn't look at all pretty or has a horribly disfiguring injury. Her sister is a legendary beauty after all.

"I didn't — didn't—"

He's forgotten that Niisan is frailer than he acts. This guilt is not something he wanted to give his brother with his eyes, but it seems that they must take the good with the bad.

It is certainly not his brother's fault that _Izuna_ unilaterally thought that this was a good idea.

"Hush, Niisan." He sinks to the floor, because sometimes, his shoulders just feel so _heavy._ "I know you didn't mean it." No, Niisan wasn't mocking him for his lack of sight, and Izuna didn't think of it as such. It was just a joke, is all. A joke that can't be made between them. "And from what I understand, there is nothing particularly ugly about Kanae-san."

Niisan doesn't comment. Clearly this is not something that needs to be disputed.

Kanae-san is not ugly. Point noted.

Her gift ought to be here somewhere. He feels each object he lifts out of their pack carefully. A hairpin is easy to stab oneself with and easy to lose, but he's kept this one for a long time now.

This was the only hairpin of their mother's he could salvage from the wreckage of their camp so many years ago. He'd kept it ever since.

"Give her this, Niisan."

They come in good faith, and this one thing, Haha-ue would have wanted it to go to Niisan's wife.

"No." Ah, there is so much pain there, but where from, Izuna doesn't know. It could be many things. It could be one thing. It could be everything and nothing. "Uzumaki Kanae doesn't need a hairpin."

He tilts his face up to where he imagines Niisan is and hopes that he isn't focusing two inches to the left of Niisan's face. That would be awkward and sad and all sorts of uncomfortable. "Why do you dislike Kanae-san, Niisan? She seems nice enough."

"She's a little girl." Oh, that is angry, but not at Izuna, not even at Kanae-san or this situation either. _What are you so angry about Niisan?_

 _She's not a little girl._

"She sounded old enough to be married." He wraps the hairpin away. A better day then. He'll choose a better day to ask Niisan to give a romantic present. Niisan at the moment wouldn't be able to handle such affairs. "And that makes her a young woman, not a little girl." He sighs. "Tell me the truth Niisan. Why do you dislike her so?"

 _Is it because she is not Senju Hashirama?_

 _Be real with yourself, Niisan. If Senju Hashirama loves you, he wouldn't have married another._

The silence between them stretches deep.

He doesn't get an answer.

* * *

The low, dull throb of the drum is heady, and the music's more sorrowful than happy or festive. Still, it's a good time. From what Izuna knows of parties, there should be dancing going on about now. The music certainly seems to imply it.

Still, even the music cannot drown out the waves, or his own thoughts. Niisan doesn't like parties, doesn't like the cheer of it, and he's been fidgeting all night, stiff and wooden.

Izuna is convinced that Uzumaki-dono is just giving them face by not mentioning it, and that Uzumaki-san is...well, too polite to say anything on the matter. She seems like the type of woman to hold herself to impeccable standards.

Kanae-san's mother reminds him a little of her daughter, Mito, except sadder. It's clear that she is not happy to be here if her frosty silence after her greeting is any indication.

Uzumaki Kanae isn't what he'd expected of a princess from Uzu, hadn't been much like the daughters of Daimyos that he's guarded over the years, though not entirely unlike either. She'd been kind, sensitive, careful, and Niisan hadn't found her objectionable except apparently she looks like a little girl.

Perhaps Niisan is just making excuses, because she neither sounds nor acts like a little girl.

Izuna thinks, personally, that it's just because Niisan doesn't want to give up on his fixations. _Senju Hashirama loves his wife, and Niisan will hurt himself over that a lot._

At least, that's what the gossip says about the matter, that Hashirama is forever gushing over Mito this and Mito that.

The drumbeat throbs and pulses in his heart. What it must be like, to be happy in love, to be settled into the motions of family? It's been a long time since his own was unbroken. And he wants to fix his, but it will take a lot of glue to put everything back into a resemblance of what life used to be.

Bare feet creak over the wooden dias, and the rustle of silk in their direction is unmistakable. Silk slides over itself in a sort of whisper unlike other clothes. "Chichi, Haha." A pause, and Izuna imagines that she bows. "And a good evening to you, Madara-sama, Izuna-san."

Kanae-san's voice only vaguely reminds him of her sister's. They hit the same range of notes, they speak with almost the same formal tone, but while Kanae-san speaks in smiles, an upturned beat to the end of every sentence, Mito speaks hesitantly to the Uchiha and quickly, sometimes tartly to her husband and Tobirama.

"Yes." Niisan says, and Izuna resists the urge to bang his forehead on the table, repeatedly. Any fool with half a brain would be able to hear the reluctance in that word. _Could you have said no more obviously? You might as well just say no instead of trying to hide behind the polite responses._

"Niisan thinks the music is wonderful." At least, he hopes Niisan makes the correct facial expressions, and he doesn't make himself look like a dolt by saying this while Niisan sulks in a corner. _I think parties are fun. Most of the time._

Kanae-san giggles. "I'm sure, Izuna-san." So she knows that he's covering for Niisan, but she doesn't mind it the slightest. She takes his hand. "Won't you come down to dance as well?"

He freezes. _Surely, she means Niisan?_

 _No, it is my hand that she has taken. She means me._

"No, Kanae-san." He'd muss up the order of the dance floor. People would have to mind their step because of him, and that-oh but how he _wants._ "I would not be a good dance partner. You should offer to dance with Niisan instead."

Oh, Niisan won't be offended if Izuna wants to dance, but he needs to actually talk with Kanae-san to know her. He can't marry a woman he doesn't know. It doesn't matter much if Izuna knows her. That's not how this works.

Niisan's decided that he'll marry Kanae-san, so they ought to talk and do things together. Activities that normal people do.

It is necessary.

Then, Izuna doesn't think that Niisan is capable of being normal. _Oh why is this so, so...Everything's a mess._ He decides. _And of course, Kanae-san would rather dance with the one of us who seems more normal._

Not that he is normal.

Kanae-san's hand tightens around his. She will not consent to let him go then. "Izuna-san, dance is for the heart, and you'll have fun." She pulls him up. "Come on. No one will think that you don't dance beautifully."

He smiles despite himself. He'd liked dancing once, even though Niisan never enjoyed it as much as he did. Kanae-san makes it easy to be happy.

He lets her lead him off the dias. Just one dance. Four steps to the edge, step down. She doesn't tell him that he ought to be careful, or that they ought to go more slowly. She doesn't slow her stride for him, all eager, pulling hands and quick feet.

Her hands are calloused, as if she's held a blade before, though not any blade that he's aware of.

After two years, his own hands are smooth. He has no more use for blades. It is a strange dichotomy, because he is certain that she has no use for war.

"Tell me honestly, Kanae-san." They are on the dance floor now. He knows this dance, though he doesn't know where the other dancers are. The music moves too loud and fast for him to keep track of other people while still holding a conversation. She corrects his path lightly, and he tries not to be irritated, to smother the spark of frustration in his chest. It is only his own blindness that makes everything hard. It's not her fault. She's not treated him with pity yet. "Why did you ask me to dance and not Niisan?"

Does she not want to spend time with his brother? He's not supposed to be more interesting than Niisan, though he supposes that he does seem more palatable...and she is not marrying Niisan because she loves him.

"Madara-sama looked tired." That's not what she means, but she's trying to be considerate. Niisan doesn't look tired. He looks broken. It's not fatigue carving a line down his shoulders. It's despair, but Izuna wants to forget that.

Wants to forget what peace has done to his beautiful, fiery brother. Two years of peace has broken more of Niisan's heart than a lifetime of war. It is not fair, but nothing in life ever is.

"Besides." She sounds pensive, sounds sad. "He didn't look like he cared for dancing while you seemed to want to step off of the dias and out here with us."

"You should have asked him." Niisan might not have cared much for dancing, but he would have been happy that someone cared for him. They've left him alone, and Izuna doesn't like it. Too late he remembers that his brother has an unnatural tendency towards contemplating his own death. He will be unhappy." He had left him with Uzumaki-dono and his wife on the dias near the sea.

And he is afraid.

There is always the fear that leaving Niisan alone would be the same as killing him.

"Yes, of course." Kanae-san lets go of him. "I'll talk to him." Good. They will have time to grow closer.

He doesn't want to trust someone else to save Niisan's heart, but he has to. He can't reach Niisan anymore, he's gone so far away. It'll have to be Kanae-san. He wonders if she knows how much of his hope is riding on her shoulders.

"Uchiha Izuna-san?" A woman, about five feet tall from the way her voice carries. She has rougher hands than Kanae-san. "I'm Okui Chihaya." Not an Uzumaki then. He has no idea what she looks like, only that she is likely a friend of Kanae-san's to be entrusted with him so.

 _So it is true that Uzu has more than one clan._

He bows in her direction. "It's good to meet you." The dance floor is colder without Kanae-san.

Okui-san makes a sound of affirmation. There's a pause and then a sigh. "Uchiha-san, I'm worried about your brother."

"How so?" There is a lot to worry about when it comes to Niisan, a lot to be concerned over, a lot to stress, but that does not mean what he worries over is the same as Okui-san by any account.

"He is a powerful man, no?" He isn't sure if this is an answer to his question. He doesn't want it to be an answer to his question.

He shrugs. "You could say that. He doesn't often think of how much power Niisan has, and he certainly doesn't worry over it. He is there when Niisan tears himself up all night, and he can't erase those memories from his mind.

"Kanae-chan is my best friend." Okui-san says suddenly. "And, oh, it's not personal, but your brother looks like he's a survivor of a wreck at sea more than he looks like a lord."

"You're afraid that he'll hurt her." Are there really so many objections to Niisan? Does his brother really encourage this sort of reputation? What can he do? What can he say? Kanae-san never has to fear Niisan, no one who Niisan calls family has anything to fear. "Niisan loves me, and I love him." Oh, everything's a mess really, and he cannot see the knots to undo to salvage the situation. What strings can he pull to calm these fears among strangers when he cannot even truly do it for his clan? "I don't think he's dangerous." He smiles and tastes the bitter tang on his tongue. "But then, I'm not the best person to ask." _Even if I hurt for Niisan, it wouldn't matter._ "But if it's any comfort to you, I promise that Kanae-san won't be hurt by him. I won't let something like that happen."

If Niisan is to go well and truly mad...no, best not think it. Niisan is not dangerous, not to those who are not his enemies.

"I didn't want you to say that, exactly." Okui-san pulls him off of the dance floor. The sand feels different beneath his feet. _The dance floor was… polished stone, worn smooth by many feet._ "Uchiha-san, Kanae-chan can take care of herself. I was worried for your brother."

 _Oh._ He'd thought, had thought — why did his mind jump directly to negatives? It's been so long since people looked at Niisan and saw someone who needed care.

The village at large can't see past their own noses. The clan looks to Niisan to help them, to lead them.

Everyone expects Niisan to be strong.

"I don't know what to say." He really doesn't. Niisan's despondency is the heaviest weight on his own heart.

"Then don't say anything." A cheerful voice cuts in.

He's heard this voice before. "You're… Ashiro-san?"

"Wow, brother mine." Another, nearly identical voice chimes in. "The blind man can tell us apart."

"You both sound similar, but you're not identical." Ashiro-san's voice has a slightly rougher undertone, and he bites his vowels more softly than his brother.

"We're keeping this one, brother." An arm's slung over his shoulders, and Ashiro's brother starts to drag him away.

"You can't do that." Okui-san protests.

"We'll watch him for you, don't worry." Ashiro chuckles from behind him. "We'll keep him very safe so Shiko-chan won't be unhappy, Chihaya-chan."

This doesn't sound particularly comforting, but he's alright for the most part, and they seem to be heading back to Uzu proper. The sand is becoming stone beneath his feet.

"So what's your name?" He asks the man whose arm is still about his shoulders.

"Who do you think I am?" The two who have dragged him off whistle a cheery tune through the streets. It sounds like the cries of a gull.

 _Kanae-san has five brothers — Kyoya, Korui, Masato, Ashiro, and Aruta._ He has met Korui-san. Ashiro-san is behind them. Kyoya-san is not on the island.

"Are you Masato-san?" If not, he has to be Aruta-san.

The man hisses and seemingly tilts backward though he's careful not to tip Izuna over with him. "Brother mine, he thinks I'm Masato-nii. _Masato-nii,_ can you imagine? How will I survive?!"

"Well, dearest brother." Ashiro chuckles, and slings his own arm over Izuna's shoulders as well. Now they walk three abreast. "It looks like you've become the resident grouch."

Aruta — and it has to be Aruta, it's practically confirmed by this point — makes a noise between a strangled duck and a wail. "Oh, my handsome face has been replaced with Masato-nii's grouch face!"

Ashiro bounces. "Oho! This means that I'm the more handsome brother now, Shiro!"

"I thought you were Ashiro." The man on his left was Ashiro, and the man on his right was Aruta. He'd thought that but—

"No, I'm Ashiro." Claims the one on the right.

"No, no, brother littlest." Says the one on the left. " _I'm_ Ashiro."

"No you're not."

They sound more and more alike until they're practically indistinguishable.

"You two have to be irritating for your parents to keep track of." He doesn't mean to say this. For one, it's insufferably rude. For another, he's normally never inadvertently rude. At times, he will be rude to Tobirama for propriety's sake and to cool his own rage, but that is purposeful. This is not.

"Oh, we're absolutely insufferable for everyone who knows us." The one of the right responds cheerfully. "Absolutely, positively."

"We're the Terrible Twins for a reason, you know? It isn't because we're sweet and kind." The one of the left chirps.

"We're even worse for people who can see where we're taking them." There's a zither playing somewhere close, through a wall perhaps, and the sound of a dice game going on among a rowdy group of people.

"Where are you taking me?" Unlike Niisan, Izuna privately doubts that the Uzumaki are out to get him. Still, the happy way they mention it is very concerning.

"A bar."

"A strip bar."

"And why are we going there?" Would Niisan — What Niisan doesn't know, won't hurt him. Izuna decides. It's not as if he wants to run off to a strip bar on a normal day, but now that he's here, he shouldn't worry over how Niisan will take it.

 _I am an adult. I do what I want. Even if I can't see it._ He's been to a bar before, for heaven's sake. It's not the end of the world like Niisan seems to think it is.

"To play strip poker, Zuzu!"

"Can we call you Zuzu?"

"Um..." Izuna isn't all that long of a name. Most people don't care to shorten it.

"We'll call you Zuzu."

He's more concerned about the strip poker part. "Also, in case you missed it," He tells the man on his right. "I'm blind. Playing strip poker with me won't be fair."

"Oh, we don't care about fair." They're inside now, and the Twins navigate the three of them through the crowd of people. "We care about fun."

"Shameful." Izuna mutters to himself. "I won't even be able to enjoy the view when you lose." He keeps no secrets from himself. He likes men and women equally well. So yes, he is highly disappointed he won't get to enjoy the view when he wins.

No one in the clan ever wanted to play with him after a while, because he can embarrass anyone enough to trick them into losing.

They both burst into raucous laughter. "We don't lose!"

"Say that again when you do lose." Izuna mutters. He used to be so good at card games. The sharingan helped, of course, but he's not good anymore. At least, he doesn't think he is. It's been awhile since he's played, so it's hard to tell.

Still, it's the thought that counts.

* * *

As it turns out, the Twins take him to play strip poker with the officers of their crew — sans Okui-san, who everyone he speaks to that night calls "the best harpooner on the western blue."

 _So that is why her hands were so rough._ He can't imagine killing whales with one's bare hands to be an easy task.

There he falls into a partnership with Nanami-san. "You know, I normally play this game with Chihaya-chan, but I might have to steal you for future games."

Ihara Nanami has a smoky voice and evidently a very friendly demeanor, because she's got an arm slung over his shoulder.

"I live in Konoha." Izuna protests rather weakly. He hasn't been back for a long time now.

"Doesn't matter." Nanami-san laughs next to his ear. "I'll kidnap you, and we can run away to sea together, Zuzu."

"I'd be useless at sea." Maybe Niisan is searching for him. That would be rather problematic, because a Niisan who doesn't know where he is is a worried Niisan, and a worried Niisan is a destructive Niisan and oh…

It's only one night. One night where he can pretend that he's just a normal young man and go out with friends even if he doesn't know them all.

"Aww." Nanami-san sighs. "It would be so much fun though. We'd see the Captains like this every other week. It'll be great."

"I can't believe it." Kawate slurs from the other side of the table. "The Captains lost this game so bad."

"Is it at least a good show?" Izuna asks.

From what he can understand, the Twins have stripped down to their boxers, and would have stripped further except the rest of the crew had screeched something about sensibilities and bleeding eyes so they'd stopped.

"Of course we're a good show, Zuzu." The two of them chirp. "We're the best show around."

They seem to be taking the loss well though.

The rest of the crew seems to be in various stages of undress as well by this point.

He, himself, happens to be shirtless, though he's managed to keep the rest of his clothing on.

As it turns out, he's still good at card games. He's rather pleased by this realization.

It's warm inside the bar though with everyone crowded around a table.

"Don't believe them." Goto mutters. "They make my eyes bleed."

"You keep saying this," Izuna takes another sip of his sake. Okay, he might be deep in his cups by now, but he isn't slurring his words yet, so it's fine. His head might ache later, but it's not the end of the world. "But have your eyes ever actually bled from them?"

Rumi laughs. "What about that one time when Captain Ruta slashed Kawate over the eye, does that count as bleeding from the eyes?"

"No, no." Kawate intercedes. "That's called bleeding from _above_ the eye."

"Prince Aruta, Prince Ashiro?" This is a more middle aged voice that the various members of the Twins' crew. "As much as I am grateful for your patronage, it is getting close to closing."

"Got it, Ibi-san." This sounds like Shiro. "We'll clear out."

The six or seven of them part ways as they exit the bar.

On the way back, they walk three abreast as Shiro and Ruta sandwich him between them and try to teach him a sea shanty.

"To me way-aye!"

"To me way-aye!"

"Oh, blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down!"

"Blow the man down!"

And so singing, they make their way back to the house of Uzumaki Ashina.

* * *

 **A.N.** In which Izuna is frustrated and meets far more Uzu people than Madara who spent the night with Kanae sitting on a rock. One of them is the better socially adjusted brother.

Real life is really hectic right now, so if I don't see you all before Christmas, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays! (Hopefully I do see everyone though, because there are several chapters of stuff that are just so close to done that I can taste it.)

Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited and followed!

~Tavina


	3. Uneven Keel

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"I know my worth

I've paid dearly

For every ounce of it."

— Alfa Holden

* * *

They are greeted in the courtyard by a rather unimpressed Uzumaki-san. "You two again." She sighs as she slides open the front door. "My misbehaving children, there was no reason to get Uchiha-san drunk."

She sounds fond, even if she is disapproving.

"I'm not drunk." He feels the need to defend his new friends, even if they probably don't need defending. "I just had a few cups. I'm fine."

"Are you really?" Uzumaki-san sighs. "Uchiha-san, can you walk without my sons?"

Izuna considers it. The ground has been highly uneven and harder to find for some reason, even though the Twins swear that they are taking the same path back which means that it shouldn't be hard to find where to put his feet.

"Yes."

He might regret this later.

Uzumaki-san smothers a laugh. "Well, you heard our guest, Ruta-chan, Shiro-chan. You're welcome to raise the roof somewhere else now."

"Ah, Haha." Shiro moans. "We were just about to start with more fun though."

"Boys." There's a world of weight in that one word. Izuna feels it, even through his vague haziness. "Don't make Uchiha-san regret this more when he wakes up in the morning."

So it's not quite morning yet. What a good thing to know.

"Aww." Ruta sighs next to his ear. "Well, we'll show Zuzu to his room at least."

"We're in the front courtyard, right?" If they are, he knows where they are, and there's no need to trouble anyone. Shiro makes a vague noise of affirmation next to his ear. "Then I can make it to my room without help."

He might regret this later.

The Twins shrug. "Okie dokie then, Zuzu. We'll see you around!" They vanish.

He stumbles slightly, but manages to move forward in a straight line, or so he imagines.

"Uchiha-san?"

He must not be walking in a straight line, else Uzumaki-san is likely not to sound so concerned about him.

"Yes?" He resists the urge to sit down on the stones beneath his feet. "I'm not going in the right direction, am I?" His mother had raised a polite young man, and a guest doesn't sit unless the host is sitting.

He imagines that Uzumaki-san is not sitting.

He doesn't know why, but Uzumaki-san reminds him of Haha-ue. They are not very similar women, not at all. Haha-ue had a fiery temper, and he hasn't even so much as heard Uzumaki-san raise her voice, but still, he is reminded of Haha-ue all the same.

"You've been walking in a large circle for a bit."

A large circle. Well, that is unfortunate.

"Maybe I do need help." He quietly admits. There's not too much shame to it. All people need help at some point or another in their lives, but this is only because he is blind and at least a little drunk, and if he were still—

 _But you are not like you once were. There is no shame in that._

He'd had to ask a Senju Healer to transplant his eyes while Niisan was recovering from his injuries. None of his clansmen would ever dare to do the deed.

Eyes are sacred.

To take another's eyes for oneself is unclean and forbidden. Niisan had not done that. Izuna's eyes were willingly offered and sprung upon him without prior warning.

But why think of this now? Why now, when all he wants is to go to bed because this day has been too long?

In some part of himself, he feels guilty. In the confusion of Niisan's injuries, the clan had turned to him for guidance, and he had nearly buckled under the weight of it all.

And in many ways, he had dodged the responsibility and stuck Niisan back under all of those weights because he wasn't strong enough to carry the load himself.

Uzumaki-san links her arm with his. "Well, your room is this way…" Her actions rather suggest that they are walking together, as if enjoying some particularly fine scenery.

It is the middle of the night, and at least one of them is incapable of observing the scenery.

Izuna tries very hard to not think of it.

"Is Uzumaki-dono well?" Neither he nor Niisan had stayed with their host for very long, and if he thinks about it for too long, that is rather rude.

And he's trying not to think of how cross Niisan will be to see him. In fact, he's rather surprised that Niisan is not storming through the house trying to find him.

Perhaps Niisan is asleep. He can dream of good luck at least.

"Ashina is going over some accounts." Uzumaki-san replies. "I'd merely seen the Twins head out with you and thought it best to intercept your party when you return."

"Would Uzumaki-dono disapprove?" He hadn't thought that the Twins would be facing much repercussion for their night out, but perhaps not.

Uzumaki-san smothers a laugh. "No, Ashina is simply not fond of numbers. He would not much enjoy the fun others have had this night, seeing as he must suffer with his least favorite activity."

She is a considerate woman, but still, much sadder than either of her daughters, at least, Izuna thinks so.

She is much more comfortable here walking with him back to his room than she'd been on the dias during that party earlier tonight.

He doesn't understand her, doesn't understand the game she and Uzumaki-dono play with their lives. Uzumaki-dono does not love his wife, or he would not have a son out of wedlock. Yet, Uzumaki-san still lightheartedly tells him of her husband as though they are old friends.

 _She calls him Ashina, as if Uzumaki-dono is not a king._

Will Kanae-san be the same? Would she pretend at a friendship without love? Izuna would rather it not be so, if only because he finds honesty and love important.

"I see." Is all he can say to that. What can he say really? "I hope Niisan didn't cause too much of a commotion searching for me." Is what he says next.

Uzumaki-san pauses. A moment later, there's the sound of a door sliding open. They are back at his room then. "It was no trouble, Uchiha-san. Uchiha-dono has yet to return."

Niisan isn't back yet. Well, that is strange.

 _Kanae-san is with him._

But where are they now, so late at night? _If she is still with him, then at least I know they had to have had some sort of conversation._

Izuna resigns himself to the thought that perhaps it had _not ended well._

"Thank you for your help, Uzumaki-san." He says, because even if help chafes at his pride, he is still grateful for it nonetheless.

Uzumaki-san stands there next to him for a long moment. "Help is not the same as pity, Uchiha-san." She says at last. "I hope you never consider the two the same."

He freezes. It's something he's often tried to tell himself, but he's never been able to manage it. For him, help has always seemed too much like pity for it to sit comfortably on his shoulders. "I will try to remember. Thank you."

"I did not mean my words in criticism." Uzumaki-san sighs. "It is only a mother's worry that asks it of you."

And in one brief moment, Izuna knows exactly what she means. "Do you dislike us very much, Uzumaki-san?" If Kanae-san agrees, then she will leave her home and her family, and perhaps her mother will hate that quietly. He does not think that Uzumaki-san is the type of person to express her hatreds obviously, but that does not mean quiet hatred is not just as strong.

If it was Haha-ue in this situation, he knows that Haha-ue would hate him and everything he stood for.

If Haha-ue could see him now, she would be so ashamed of him. She'd raised him polite, raised him kind and understanding and _good_ as she was, but after all these years, all he has retained is polite. He is neither kind, nor understanding, nor good.

Kanae-san had not tried to pity him, but she had tried to help all the same. Her haha-ue knows this, and more importantly she'd seen that _he,_ Uchiha Izuna, isn't the sort of person to be happy with that sort of sister-in-law. At least, he doesn't think this makes him happy.

 _What I can do myself should never fall to someone else. I don't need it._

There is nothing wrong with accepting help, nothing wrong, but it bruises his fragile pride and sometimes he simply cannot stand it.

But for Niisan, Izuna can stomach many things. _I can't live like that, not if I want Niisan to ever get better._

And someone who folds kindness into every word is perhaps the best sort of person for Niisan as he is now. And if that is true, then Izuna will simply have to stand it. He already has Niisan to worry over his every move. He doesn't need someone else's concern as well.

Ah, this is why he doesn't drink often nowadays. Sake doesn't loosen his tongue; it just turns him mauldin.

Two years in the dark, and already he suffers the effects of that twisting. He is certain he was able to accept help before.

"No, Uchiha-san." The words are soft. "I am merely a sad old woman who worries too much for her family, but you have told Chihaya-chan that no harm will come to Kanae-chan in Konoha." A pause. The night is quiet and deep all about them.

Far away, there is the sound of pounding waves.

"I will have to trust you to keep your word, won't I?"

"She will be my sister." Izuna says. "And family is important to us." This is a promise far heavier than anything he might have said to Okui-san. If Kanae-san marries Niisan, then she will be his neesan, and if that is so, if that is so, then Izuna will love her with every spare bit of his heart because that is what family deserves.

Uzumaki-san hums. "Thank you, Uchiha-san." Her footsteps away pause for a moment. Perhaps she turns to look back at him, sitting on the bed with his hands clasped between his knees. "Forgive an old woman for her presumption, Uchiha-san." She says. "But if you were my son, I'd be proud of you."

Her footsteps fade away, but her words had cut to the quick.

 _If you were my son, I'd be proud of you._

How had she known? How had she known what he needed to hear?

That he had thought of Haha-ue and how much she would hate what he's become since her death?

Would _Haha-ue_ be proud of him as Uzumaki-san suggests she would be?

 _No._ He decides at last as he lies there in the pressing dark. _No, she would not._

It takes him long to fall asleep.

* * *

He's woken by the sound of feet and quiet chatter. _Kanae-san, and...Niisan._ He decides.

They've finally come back from wherever they had gone last night then.

He sits up and starts pulling on his boots. Likely, them being back means that they will have to go somewhere soon.

"The mere thought is ridiculous." That's Niisan. He sounds...huffy about something, which means Izuna will have to smooth it over soon.

"I am perfectly serious." That sounds like Kanae-san. She does sound perfectly serious.

He would laugh, but this argument confuses him. It doesn't even sound like the sort of arguments Niisan normally has. It's made mostly out of bafflement than black rage.

Then again, maybe he's been listening to Niisan and Senju Tobirama argue for too long now.

"Good morning, Izuna-san." Kanae-san seems to beam with her words as she comes in. _Her feet are bare._

 _Even in this cold?_ He found it chilly as he pulled on his boots a little earlier, but she isn't even wearing shoes.

"Good morning." He replies. "You didn't come back last night, Niisan."

Niisan merely grunts. "Hn." Clearly, Kanae-san needs to agree with him about something before he's satisfied.

Kanae-san plops down to sit on the floor. "Izuna-san is safe. Or safer, because you can't see anything you know. Just don't follow any strange voices, and you'll be fine." _What?_ "I should have told you earlier, I should have—"

"Kanae-san? What is going on?" He crosses his left leg over his right.

This sounds like something is dangerously the matter. Yet, if they are in a peaceful village, surely there aren't any enemies about to attack, so he is quite at a loss.

Kanae-san sighs, one long slow breath as if she is a little bit exhausted with trying to explain. Izuna wonders how long she and Niisan have been arguing about this something dangerous.

There are fair few things in this world Niisan has to be afraid of. Well, that is not exactly true, because Niisan's heart is frail, but his battle prowess always has other people calling him strong.

"Our island shares a delicate balance with the Habiki-san's court, the one under the sea." _Under the sea. She's talking about...youkai?_ "We have a peace accord with them, so they won't take us, but visitors aren't always so respected."

"But youkai aren't real." Youkai are children's tales, marsh sprites and forest spirits ready to steal young children. How would they pose any threat at all?

Kanae-san laughs, though she sounds rather like she wants to cry out of frustration. "Mainlanders." _She doesn't know many people from Fire Country, then. That's not a particularly favorable reaction._ "That is a portrait of a youkai." Izuna cannot see this portrait, but he rather suspects that this portrait is one of those fanciful descriptions of youkai. For someone who has been so sensible in all other respects, a belief in youkai isn't something he expected. "Her name is Iruya-atawa no Kanae. She married Uzumaki Ishiro five hundred years ago to keep the peace. From her, we get our red hair." _The Uzumaki…_

 _Hadn't the old legends always said the Uzumaki weren't completely human?_

That's what the oldest legends of Uzu had always said, that their chakra and their inheritance spoke of a blood shared with what is not human.

Kanae-san continues. "But if you don't believe me, that's alright."

A sudden gust of wind has him wrapping his blanket tighter around his shoulders.

"That explains nothing." Niisan finally cuts in.

"If you truly don't believe me that the youkai exist, then why did you step out into the water?"

 _Niisan decided to walk into the water? Not onto it?_

He hasn't time to consider it. Chakra surges like an uneven tide, and the room warms. Kanae-san's chakra is quite _deep._ The feeling is almost magnetic.

"What did you just do?"

"I turned on the heating seal, Madara-sama."

 _She called him Madara-sama. Why?_ He's certain Niisan wasn't arrogant enough to ask it of her, so why does she talk to him so deferentially?

"Thank you, Kanae-san." Izuna leans forward. "But I still don't believe you." She can't just say things like 'that is a portrait of a youkai' and expect him to believe the local legends. No one in Fire Country really believes in _youkai._

"Well, then you can just wait around to see Niisama then." She leaps to her feet, bare feet loud against the wooden floorboards. "Anharaya-atawa no Kyoya is half albatross." _What._ He barely has time to quiet his thoughts before she continues. "But of course, that will have to wait for the turn of the wind, in six month's time."

"What?" Niisan sounds as disbelieving as him.

 _Your eldest brother is half albatross? What the—_

She giggles. "It's the worst kept secret on the Island: Chichi's first love was Anharaya-atawa no Biwa, the Lady of the Iron Claw."

So she has actually met a youkai then. That is a whole different kettle of fish.

The three of them head out. He does his best to ignore Kanae-san's hand on his elbow. "Come, I need to yell at Habiki-san, and it is better if I can point and gesture at the guests that he is not supposed to touch."

* * *

They are standing on the rocks, facing the sea, for he can feel the spray on his face. The water is cold, but Kanae-san continues walking.

"Ichiro-usahaya no Habiki-san!" She roars, louder than any wave could hope to aspire to, with a voice heavily enhanced by chakra.

The water moves, as if pushed by a very large body.

 _What is that?_ Beside him, Niisan has gone stiff, tension frissioning in the air.

It reeks of bloodlust, and the chakra is huge. Going by the outline...this is not a man.

"You called, Lovely Girl?" There's a hiss at the end of the sentence, the air suddenly warmed as if by a breath.

Whatever has just spoken, it is far larger than any man.

The shape of the chakra isn't even remotely human and most of it is still beneath the water.

"You promised you wouldn't harm our guests." _She sounds like she's pouting. She doesn't find this frightening at all, despite the overly large amount of bloodlust saturating everything right now._

Air suddenly rushes away as the chakra becomes even more compact. The being is man sized now. "Oh, I wouldn't have, Lovely Girl."

So the world was wrong. There are still youkai living.

But who is this Habiki-san exactly? _She said that Uzu shares a treaty...she had called the youkai court his._

Uzumaki Kanae-san has just casually summoned a youkai king who speaks of her fondly.

 _Kanae-san, how many other layers do you have?_ The daughter of one king, and evidently, friend of another.

"I don't believe we've been properly introduced." Habiki-san says, displeasure heavy in his tone. "But I think I know who you are." He is closer now, on the rocks perhaps. "You are the ones who have arrived to take my lovely girl away from the Island."

Niisan moves in front of him. He would be upset with this, Niisan doesn't have to protect him as though he doesn't understand the danger himself, but there's no time for that.

 _Habiki-san...likes Kanae-san, far more than just as a friend._

"Habiki-san!" Kanae-san cuts in. "Why can't you be polite to them?"

"Oh Lovely Girl." Habiki-san sighs. "Women like you drown oceans. But what will you be without oceans left to drown?"

"Nothing gold can stay." So it is decided then, despite the argument they might or might not have had about the existence of youkai, Kanae-san is willing to marry Niisan.

It's better than he hoped for honestly, so Izuna tells himself he is quite relieved and leaves it at that.

"The sea will miss you, as the earth misses his sunrise." Poetry. Habiki-san is gifting Kanae-san with poetry as a parting gift. _They were very close then, before we arrived._ "Fear not, Little Storm, I will not trouble your human suitor any longer."

His chakra vanishes out of the range of Izuna's sensing ability.

A large wave sloshes water onto the rocks.

Kanae-san splutters half sad, half angry. "I hate you, Habiki-san."

"Do you believe me now?" She asks when she is done with the water.

"Hn." That is 'I agree, in Niisan-speak, but Izuna gets the feeling that she knows that already without him needing to translate.

He decides against it, if only because _he_ hates being told things like a small child who can't do anything himself so he really ought not make other people feel the same way.

That, and things between Kanae-san and Niisan are even progressing well if this is what leaving them alone for a night has wrought.

* * *

They take lunch with Uzumaki-dono's family sans her eldest brother.

It's a pleasant gathering, and the seafood is uncommon but still quite tasty.

Niisan has regressed into an unwelcoming and awkward silence once again. Izuna tries not to too upset about this.

Niisan will do what he does, and Izuna will do his best to make sure his brother at least appears like a functional human being until they leave the island.

He has just had a small discussion with the Twins about the merits of playing shogi with people you know too well, when Uzumaki-san asks a question, the first time she's opened her mouth since greeting the guests.

"When are you leaving?"

Niisan did not say when they were leaving or when he'll need to get back to not miss anything too terribly important going on in the village government. "I'm not sure." He replies and takes a sip of his soup.

He misjudges the distance between his mouth and the bowl. The porcelain clinks loudly against the stone table. He winces and decides now would be the best time to ask Niisan to cover his own issues. "Niisan?"

"Tomorrow." He sounds so tired, but Izuna knows, _knows,_ that no one else has heard it.

Trying to act normal isn't Niisan's strong suit — _No, his strength is setting his own hair on fire —_ but this is bad, even for him.

He does have a few suggestions for how to get out of this, but as it turns out, Korui-san has several things to say about this, mostly angry.

"Tomorrow? How could you take Shiko-chan from us by dawn tomorrow?"

Izuna winces again. _There were better ways to broach this subject. I shouldn't have asked. I shouldn't have._

"Korui." Uzumaki-dono makes his displeasure known.

"No." There's a click as Ashiro's bowl hits the table. "Chichi-ue you have to tell him that he can't do that. Shiko still has to—"

"Ashiro-nii." Kanae-san sets her chopsticks down across her bowl abruptly. "Madara-sama has said that he is going tomorrow. So I will go tomorrow, and that is all." She still calls Niisan Madara-sama. He knows she doesn't fear his brother, but still hearing such formal address grinds across all of his nerves. _You cannot have asked her to call you that, can you? You've never done something like that before. Are you so determined to dislike her?_

"Excuse me." Kanae-san gathers up the porcelain bowls, the sound of earthenware placed one atop another with a hasty hand is unmistakable. "I must visit everything once this afternoon, and then finish packing. Please enjoy the meal, Madara-sama, Izuna-san, Haha, Chichi, Obaasan."

"Well, boy." Uzumaki-dono's mother rasps. "You've made a mess of things, haven't you?"

She doesn't sound impressed.

Izuna isn't either.

"That wasn't Niisan's intent." Oh how to explain? He cannot say 'my brother is weary of your company' such a thing can only make everything _worse._ "I'm sure that he only thinks that there is much to do in Konoha still."

Uzumaki Masato grunts. "If only she were marrying you. At least you have social tact, and you speak politely."

That's what Izuna's always afraid of. They're not supposed to find him more palatable than Niisan, but at least one of them has to not set fire to their own hair so this gathering parts on amicable terms.

Niisan leaves the room, his chair nearly falling to the ground in his haste to exit the scene.

Izuna catches it with one hand, wincing slightly when the wooden back smacks the inside of his wrist.

The silence at the table is deafening for exactly one moment, and then Aruta's all the way around the table. "Do you need someone to look at your wrist? I know for a fact that Korui-nii is good friends with several people in medic training."

"Don't look at me," Korui-san protests. "Do you know that the last friend I asked for advice about healing seals gave me webbed hands for two straight weeks? I had to go to Naosu-jisan to get that fixed, you know."

"That's because it's you, Korui-nii." Ashiro singsongs. "They love pranking you because you're just so nice that you'd never blame anyone at all. Doormat Niisan, don't be so easy to bully and no one would give you webbed hands for two weeks."

"I'll show you a doormat—"

"Boys." Their obaasan's interjection cuts through their bickering. "Just someone see to Uchiha-san's wrist."

There's another silence that falls as they presumably try to figure out the situation.

"Bah." Masato-san mutters. "You lot are useless."

A different set of hands takes hold of his wrist. The chakra overlaid on his wrist is placid on the surface, like a lake frozen under ice. "Don't go catching things that are half stone again when you can't see them." Masato-san grouses at him as he erases the inevitable bruise and swelling. "You might be a mainlander barbarian, but if we're going to be related, I'd hate for you to die so stupidly."

His words are intensely unkind, but the touch of his chakra is tender and light, careful, for a healing done improperly by inexperienced hands can cause injury.

Oh. _Oh._ So this is Kanae-san's third brother.

Izuna smiles. "Thank you very much for your reminder, Masato-san."

Uzumaki Masato huffs at him. "I just didn't want to explain to your nasty tempered brother about how we broke you not two seconds after he left."

And then he supposes Masato-san excuses himself because Ashiro decides that it's a great day for a good game of shogi even with someone who is blind, and the three of them excuse themselves — he is forcibly kidnapped without his prior consent or much ability to apologize for the situation to the others — to go do just that.

* * *

The next morning, as Niisan had so unceremoniously dumped into the conversation at lunchtime like an unwanted piece of baggage, they take leave of Uzu.

Kanae-san hugs every person in her family tightly, while a crowd turns out to bid farewell to their princess.

"Kanae-hime." One small girl, by the sound of her voice and the angle from which it comes from, Izuna places her at about six or seven years of age, sobs. "Kanae-hime's leaving for forever and ever and never coming back."

She is much loved then, here among the people she grew up with and knew well.

These words only prompt an unfortunate amount of crying from the other children in the crowd.

"Chiru-chan." Kanae-san crouches down in front of the crying girl. "It'll be alright, you see. Sometimes the change in our lives leaves space for something better."

"It's not fair." Chiru sniffs. "How can he love you more than us?"

Izuna winces. Niisan does not _love_ Kanae-san.

"Chiru, that is very rude. Apologize to Madara-sama."

"'M sorry." She doesn't sound sorry, but it doesn't seem like Niisan cares.

"Hn." Or maybe he just didn't even hear, he feels distracted.

Oh, he wishes he doesn't have to do this, that he wasn't compelled by too much love for Niisan to do this. He does not even know truly if the clan will love her.

 _Ah well. If the heavens have to damn anyone for this, they can send me to hell and rake me over coals for the rest of eternity._

 _If it saves Niisan, I don't care._

That's a lie, of course. He cares. He cares far too much, but he cares about Niisan _more._ So he'll live with the guilt of doing this and maybe, just maybe someday far into the future, Kanae-san will be happy in Konoha, and he won't have to feel guilty anymore.

Still, the people of Uzu do let Kanae-san go.

This trip over the waves, they go boat again, though he hasn't the faintest idea how it is propelled across the water.

"I suppose he won't be coming." They've made half the trip in silence, and Kanae-san only speaks now, a little sad, a little resigned.

"Who?" He asks. Who does she expect to see here where there is nothing but wind and water?

"Kyoya-niisama." Her eldest brother had been absent for this entire visit, and by the inflection of her voice, absent for a long time. She misses him, Izuna decides. "He won't be here until the turn of the wind, and that is not today."

"Oh." He sighs. "It's irresponsible of him to not come and see you off." She loves this mysterious hanyou so, but does he love her at all?

Her bright laughter rings out across the crash of the water. "Izuna-san, you can't judge him the way you judge men. He isn't a man, you know."

"Why not?" Niisan asks.

It's true in a sense. A hanyou by definition is half human. He is both human and youkai, and he ought to have been here unless he has pressing tasks at hand elsewhere.

"He doesn't think of time the same way." The boat bumps against the other shore. They are in Fire Country again. "It might as well be a few hours to him for all that years pass for us." _How long does a hanyou live?_ Legend says that youkai live immortal lives, but her eldest brother isn't entirely youkai. How long does he expect to live? "Violence takes on a different hue for him too. He's fond of catching intruders and cutting them apart for shark bait."

So her eldest brother doesn't act like a human even in front of her, and she is entirely fine with the fact.

How odd that Uzumaki-dono has never even attempted to discipline his eldest child.

Such penchant for cruelty can be dangerous, even in shinobi realms.

 _It's official_ , he decides when he finally returns to the conversation at hand. _Kanae-san improves Niisan's mood._

Currently, they are having a discussion about the difference between trees and bushes.

"A bush is shorter than a tree."

 _Wow Niisan, really? A bush is shorter than a tree._

"And it doesn't have a trunk." He has to try hard not to laugh. That's the main difference between trees and bushes after all, bushes spread out more without real trunks into a mass of branches. Trees on the other hand, grow straight up until a certain height with many branches after that. "Most trees have trunks."

"I don't understand any of it." Kanae-san sighs. "I will leave you to your discussion about types of trees and flowers and such."

A mile out from Konoha, he remembers that he has to get the house ready.

Kanae-san does not have a room yet, and there's no furniture in the one which their relatives had decided would be suited for Niisan's wife since it has large windows and is not too terribly far from Niisan's room.

He hadn't held out the most hope for this venture to Uzu, but considering that Kanae-san is going to be living there from today onwards, it would be rude to ask her to sleep on the floor.

 _Who can I ask to permanently borrow some furniture from?_ He ruffles through the list of names with furious pace. _Inami? I will have to call in that favor from Inami._

 _What will I need?_

He thanks his lucky stars that Niisan and Kanae-san seem to be taking the scenic route.

He takes leave of them. "It's so I can get the house ready for when you arrive, Niisan, Kanae-san."

This is true. This is true, and he also wants to leave them alone for another bit.

Perhaps Niisan doesn't know about that part. He does let Izuna go with minimal fanfare, distracted by Kanae-san's question about such and such flower.

Izuna politely congratulates himself on a job well done.

* * *

 **A.N.** Izuna tries to course correct on certain things. It sort of works.

Tomorrow, I start spring semester, so I'm not sure how fast updates will go. Still, several chapters are incredibly close to completion, and I had a brief spurt of productivity on the next chapter of Bloodless rewriting scenes that were deleted earlier, so who knows, I might see you all soon after all.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited and followed!

~Tavina


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